Throw Me
by lemonjelly
Summary: Syndrome’s gone but how does that compare to what’s left behind? The Parrs just try to get by as a lessthanaverage family. firsttime incredific. all comments very welcome. CHAPTER 18: “That’s not how it was meant to happen. This is not right at all...”
1. Healing Time

**Disclaimer: ehem – I do not own The Incredibles. Everything belongs to Pixar and we're all very happy**

**Ok, so this is maybe the first fic I've posted**

**where**** I don't know at least two chapters ahead what's going on**

**In summary: I don't know where I'm going with this**

**But please bear with me**

**And also, apologies for everyone who expected this to be an ER fic.**

**I am planning a follow-up to Beyond All Of Everything**

**Please look out for it**

**It will probably be entitled: "A Prominent Central Vein"**

**Meanwhile, this is my first The Incredibles fic because I was completely taken in by the film**

**Well done Brad Bird and co-workers**

**But for now – as always – Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

* * *

**Throw Me. Chapter One. Healing Time**

- o -

In desperate situations, you do not question things, just as she did not stop and stand still wondering where her husband and two eldest children were – there just wasn't time. And the situation was desperate. His cape was long, black and it snapped in the air behind him like the archetypal villain; the baby over his shoulder pleaded with her, reached out to her, though only with his round, crying eyes. That was the only sound that rang in her ears – that wail of his and the way it made her frantically sick with worry. She was running, running, running but it was like she was on a treadmill at the gym and he wasn't getting any closer. If anything, he was getting further away. It was pointless, the running, she felt the panicked exasperation of realising that she was not helping and that, worse – far worse, ahead of her, the black-and-white shape of Syndrome was escaping with her baby son howling for her over his shoulder.

Fighting to swallow her heart that pounded in her throat, she resorted to her second nature (or was it first?) and reached out her arms towards the small, and getting smaller, figure of little Jack-Jack. But: nothing. Nothing was happening.

"Oh god – oh god..."

Now helpless, now resigned to this, she fell to the floor with nothing left in her. She would've cried, she would've sobbed and screamed and begged, but as her youngest child, her tiny son, disappeared, she could only watch in wide-eyed horror. And Mrs. Helen Parr, mother of three, suburban housewife, who had struggled so hard for any sense of normality, found that she was just that. Normal.

"Oh god."

But with this strangled cry, Helen's eyes blink open to darkness and the familiar untroubled sleeping face of her husband. She lies beside him for a while, tiny in comparison, and catches her breath in the dark. That was horrible. Horrible. Running and getting nowhere, reaching and nothing happening, tripping and watching helplessly. Running her tongue over her dry lips, she takes a deep, decisive breath and moves her hand to sweep back her scarcely unruly hair from her face. Only she can't. Looking down, she realises why and only sighs with frustration. This wasn't the first time; in the midst of a fraught and chilling nightmare, her flailing arms had become entangled and knotted themselves firmly around her right ankle.

"Honey?" she hisses in the dark room, inching as best she can across the mattress to nudge him softly on his shoulder. "Bob?"

"Mmm?" he replies though his eyes stay closed. She rolls her eyes and pokes him more sharply in the shin with her free left foot.

"Bob?" Louder now as she kicks him, he jolts awake.

"Eh? Wha-? Huh?" Bob Parr puts out a hand to flick on the light and gazes, blearily and blinking, at his wife's reproachful expression and raised eyebrows when he smirks at her: twisted and tied around herself in a way that even the best contortionists can't manage.

"Little help?" her lips twitch in a smile despite herself and he chuckles.

"Occupational hazard, right?" he comments, his voice sounding croaky in the early hours of the morning. "I should leave you tied-up after kicking me like that." He grins and begins to carefully unpick the jumbled knot.

"You wouldn't dare," she answers instantly but smiles fondly at the top of his head while he peers over the tangled mess she'd got herself into.

"Tell me if I hurt you," he murmurs, before briefly looking up at her and asking, softly: "Bad dream, honey?"

She doesn't have a smart, sharp answer this time and stays silent for a while before finding words.

"I'd forgotten – forgotten how it was like," she admits, quietly. "And even then, it wasn't the same. Jack-Jack – he – he was just –"

"Done."

"Thanks, honey."

Bob Parr glances up and smiles at her as she stretches out her arms, stiff from hours twisted around each other. "You were saying? Jack-Jack..."

"He was just so small," Helen finishes finally and looks back at him, expecting some kind of light-hearted comment in return. Instead, he only wraps his strong arms around her and nods.

"I know, and he doesn't have any powers. He was so –"

"Helpless, yes. And it was tough, thinking of him, of Vi and Dash. I mean, who do you look out for first? Whose back do you watch? It was never like this –"

"Before." They finish in unison.

"Yes," Helen's face breaks into a smile, realising the same thoughts had chased in his mind, too.

"Well, honey, it's over now – that was yesterday," he comforts.

"But what about when –" she begins, launching into endless 'what if's.

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," he interjects firmly. Her eyes search his for any sign of indecision or uncertainty but, finding none, only nods slowly and buries her face in his chest as he reaches out and flicks the light off.

- o -


	2. The Verdict

**Thank very much for the reviews, Jack-Jack Incredible, Dash, soccergurl1990 and FutureFanatic**

**They were much appreciated!**

**Any, next chapter**

**It seemed that Violet/Tony relationships were kind of popular here**

**Never actually occurred to me before**

**But it makes more sense to right it in**

**And I'm sorry I don't think I mentioned that:**

**A) ****Syndrome is dead – it's official.**

**B) ****They don't know about Jack-Jack's powers.**

**This one is set 5 months on from Chapter One**

**So I'll stop talking now **

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

---

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Two. The Verdict**

- o -

"Well, _my _dad said he once saw Mr. Incredible at the post office."

"Why would he go to a post office? He could just, like, use his powers and, like, magic letters places and stuff."

Violet ignores them but lets a small smile creep across her face, all the same. It is, in a way, really quite fun listening to the other kids in school competing with each other for the closest they've come to the regenerated supers. She can saunter calmly down the halls on her way to class and imagine all the different situations in which she calmly and stylishly plays her trump card. Of course she never would; she wasn't that stupid, but it's always fun to imagine. Putting her earphones in and turning up the volume, she checks the clock and heads for her locker.

"Yeah, well, get this – my brother's friend's cousin said that he found Frozone's old cape!"

"How d'you know it was his?"

"Frozone doesn't even _wear_ a cape! Jesus, you're so stupid!"

"Hey, Violet! Violet? Vi!"

Violet turns, adjusting the dark green band in her hair, to see a familiar face struggling through the crowded halls. Tony Rydinger is not normally so ridiculously clumsy but his eyes are fixed on his new girlfriend as he calls out to her, one hand in the air, and fights the horde of kids.

"Hey Tony," she greets him when he arrives at her locker, breathless.

"Want to – sit outside for – lunch? Since it's a – nice day and all?"

Violet glances at him, nods and then laughs at his breathlessness while they head out through the bustling swarm of students still discussing the latest major save on the superhero front.

"No, no, no! The best part was when Mr. Incredible tore out that lamppost and pinned those two guys against a wall with it!"

"Man, that was sweet! How cool would it be if you could just...do that?"

She hopes Tony knows what she goes through for him. Violet rolls her eyes, reminiscent of her mother, at the endless banter between Tony's friends sitting out on the grass. The debates rage on between Tony and two of his friends whilst Violet sits quietly, trying to ignore them.

"Not a fan?" a voice beside her murmurs.

Violet jumps; she had almost forgotten Francis, sitting silently with his brown eyes watching the conversation rattle backwards and forwards from behind his overhanging black fringe. Francis was one of Tony's less annoying friends, but only because he tended to just sit and patiently listen. Violet smiles slightly, surprised to hear him speak up.

"Yeah, all the superhero talk gets to me after a while," she pauses, as she always does when talking on this topic, to check she's not giving anything away. "I get enough of it at home."

"Same here," Francis nods and briefly flashes a sympathetic smile. "My dad's in that business."

"Really?" Violet narrows her eyes and edges closer. Was this kid trying to say that his dad was...?

"One of those higher-ranking cops that has a speciality," Francis continues and Violet shakes herself. Of course he wouldn't give away his identity that easily. "He's always on about those evil superheroes they have to fill out paperwork on. I mean, Christ, he spends most of his time copying out transcripts from interviews and filing away evidence but he talks about it like it's his whole damn life."

An outburst like this from anyone would be a shock, but from the ever-passive Francis, Violet just doesn't know what to say.

"Okay." She hears herself say and the boy falls silent again. So maybe not all of Tony's friends are annoying, but they've certainly got some issues. Ignoring the enduring debates and the clearly troubled Francis, Violet mindlessly sits, pulling blades of grass from the soil, her curtain of dark hair shining bluer in the afternoon sun.

* * *

Now she is at home, sat similarly at the dinner table and twisting her fork in her plate of spaghetti. Normally on an average night she'd entertain herself by placing a force-field around Dash's plate everytime he stabbed his fork down to eat, but tonight something's different. Even Jack-Jack stays quiet. Dash glances across the table at his older sister and, wordlessly, they exchange a kind of rare sympathy with each other. Normally he'd be livening up dinner by snatching away items of her cutlery too quickly for her to see as she reaches for them, but tonight there's some kind of strange tension in the room. 

"Five months is hardly enough," Helen breaks the silence finally and glances sharply at her husband.

Both Dash and Violet know what's going on; it's been making the news all over the city but especially, it seems, in the Parr household. Collaborator and so-called sidekick, Mirage, to the deceased boy-turned-super, Syndrome, who is held responsible for the deaths of many of the greatest Supers of his era; has been released after five months serving sentence in one of the governments own uniquely designed cells in the carefully constructed prison for such Supers. Of course, debates over this decision have rages through the courts, playgrounds and coffee-breaks of Metroville but none so fiercely as the dining room of the Parr's.

"Oh come on, you were there," Bob counters. "You saw her. She was _helping_ us at the end – five months was too _much_."

"And that makes it alright does it? That she's 'seen the error of her ways'?" Helen snaps back. "She tried to kill two of your children."

"It wasn't her who pressed the button."

"But she didn't exactly protest, did she?"

In between the rising voices, the doorbell rings and both Dash and Violet's eyes flick between their arguing parents.

"She was acting under orders! Who knows how he blackmailed her!"

" – Mom, the door." Dash attempts to interrupt as the doorbell trills again, louder.

"Jesus, Bob – blackmail or not, surely the woman's got morals."

" – Dad, there's someone at the door."

"Wait a second; is this about what happened in the Containment Unit?" Bob realises slowly. And then it really is silent with only the shrill doorbell breaking it at intervals. Vi and Dash's heads still move backwards and forwards between the adults like spectators at Wimbledon, but Helen and Bob stay perfectly still, blazing eyes fixed firmly on each other.

"Dash," Helen speaks deliberately and with forced calm. "Please go and answer the door. I'm busy at the moment."

All too gladly, Dash slips down from his chair and runs to the door.

"This is nothing to do with what happened then," Helen begins.

"Nothing happened!" Bob interjects firmly.

"It's just that she's not exactly the most trustworthy person," she continues, ignoring her husband's protests.

"Erm – Mom?" Dash speaks up hesitantly and, with seamless synchronisation, Helen and Bob Parr turn their heads to see, of course, Mirage standing awkwardly in the door frame.

"Well, hi!" Bob greets, overly cheerful. The whole family plaster their faces with unconvincingly wide beams.

Mirage laughs nervously before admitting, finally, "I didn't know where else to go."

- o -


	3. Su Casa

**Thanks very much to the reviewers**

**I've kind of figured out the plot line for this now, so hurrah for that**

**And thanks to the following:**

**selbidercnI, Jack-Jack Incredible, Dash, soccergurl1990, El Jugador, FutureFanatic and goldfish078 (who reviewed the other chapter but I forgot to thank – sorry about that)**

**Midnight Lady, yes I was hoping not to get any awkward questions on this**

**If it's alright with y'all, I'd like to take it that the last bit in the film**

**(The part with Dash coming second in the race)**

**Does happen, but the very last bit with The Underminer doesn't**

**So yes, they don't know about Jack-Jack's powers**

**But they will eventually...**

**Anyway, that's later on – so, for now:**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Three. Su Casa.**

Jack-Jack gurgles loudly and bangs relentlessly on the bars of his playpen with a plastic screwdriver.

"He's very cute," Mirage comments in the tense living room. It is only her, Dash, Violet and the noisy Jack-Jack sitting in there, pretending they can't hear the heated conversation going on between Bob and Helen Parr in the kitchen. "What's his name?"

"Jack-Jack," Violet answers quietly. "I'm Violet, and this is Dash." Dash smiles with a polite shyness that shocks Violet. Dash? Shy? Has the world gone mad?

"Nice to properly meet you," Mirage nods courteously. "My name is –"

"Mirage," Dash cuts in for her. "We know who you are."

"Yes." Mirage does not know what else to say and begins to feel like coming here was the worst idea she'd ever come up with. Jack-Jack laughs delightedly and chews on the rubber head of his father, in miniature superhero-figurine form.

"Alright? Alright?! How is this alright?" Helen's voice is, in fact, clearly audible from the kitchen though Vi, Dash and Mirage are pretending the walls of the suburban house are soundproof.

"Come on, honey – she needs our help. She helped us."

"Uh – yeah, Bob – right before she tried to _kill us_!"

"Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? Surely we can spare her a few nights on our sofa." Bob tries to reason with her.

"Jesus, Bob, we barely know her! How do you know she's just so suddenly fighting for the right side?" Helen squares up to him and fixes him with a glare.

"Because she helped us! And whatever happened to love thy neighbour and let thy neighbour - sleep - on...thy couch?" His voice trails off under his wife's cynically arched eyebrows. Despite being over twice her size, Bob Parr crumples under Helen's glower and is grateful when the phone begins to ring.

"Hey, Helen," the warm voice of their oldest family friend, Lucius Best comes down the receiver when she picks it up. "I was wondering if you and Bob could take some time to get down to the city – a bus packed full of elderly tourists is hanging over a bridge. Police are having a tough time keeping it steady and getting people out; we could really use you down here."

"Well, Lucius..."

"It's Lucius? What's going on? Where is it?" Bob's eyes light up eagerly. Helen looks at him; all hopes of carrying on the conversation now are gone.

"Okay, we'll get there in five," Helen answers before replacing the phone.

If she was honest with herself, she desperately needed to get out and get back to doing what she was best at. Bob only grins broadly, his eyes sparkling and looking remarkably like Dash. As the pair of them grab their suits and head for the door they had almost forgotten:

"Where do you think you're going?" Violet stands in the doorway with Dash by her side, both dubious and both waiting for an answer.

"Well..." Helen glances awkwardly at Bob who rubs the back of neck and attempts a weak smile.

"For a walk?" he offers, lamely.

"Dressed like that?" Dash pipes up, jerking his head at the couple dressed in their super suits, masks in hand. "I don't think so."

"Honey..." Helen begins.

"...Mirage is in charge for tonight. Be good." Bob finishes, grabbing his wife's wrist and running for it.

"Hey!" Violet yells down the street. "You're gonna be in big trouble when you get home!"

-

"Mirage?" Helen asks, breathlessly as they speed through the suburbs, fast approaching the city centre. "After all that?"

"It's better than them coming with us, isn't it? It's the perfect solution." Bob replies with a small shrug.

"I don't know...I don't feel comfortable with leaving the kids with a woman we don't know."

"I think our kids are more than a match for one person, honey. And anyway, we'll just finish up here and get back home in time. What could happen?"

They skid to a halt on their heels and stand together on the river bank. Just ahead of them, a packed coach teeters precariously on the edge of the bridge and helicopters shudder in the sky, sending down jerky searchlights that only add to the chaos. Cars screech their brakes at the police-enforced blockades at the bridge entrance and spectators have already gathered, shouting, screaming and waiting to see what comes next.

"Textbook example," Bob turns to his wife with a grin.

"No problem," she answers softly and smiles at him.

-

What could happen? Well, with the Parrs, truly _anything_ could happen but certainly neither Bob nor Helen expected to return home to this.

They open the front door onto silence and step inside, suspicion already setting in.

"Erm – Mirage?" Bob calls into the still house.

"You're back? Was it good?" Mirage comes through the kitchen door and is whispering. "Your son is sleeping, Mr Incredible, so maybe we don't talk so loudly."

"Dash is in bed?" Helen repeats incredulously. "It's only nine."

"Oh no," Mirage laughs slightly. "Your other son, the baby, Jack-Jack..."

"Hah, yeah, cos normally you have to wrestle Dash to get him into bed before eleven," Bob jokes, glancing at Helen who smiles and rolls her eyes. "He's quite a handful."

"...Dashiel is doing his homework in the kitchen." Mirage continues.

"Huh?" Both Bob and Helen's jaws drop when they see Dash working away at his Math homework at the kitchen table.

"But...how?" Bob asks, dazed.

"He wanted to know about all the inventions Syndrome came up with, so I made a deal with him," Mirage shrugged her shoulders and Dash grins at his parents.

"I'm a fair guy; you give a little, you get a little," he says, leaning back in his chair.

"Violet's in bed, also," Mirage adds.

"So, let me get this straight," Helen begins, eyes narrowed in disbelief. "You got Jack-Jack to go to sleep, Vi's gone to bed on time and Dash is doing his homework?"

Mirage shrugs again and smiles, "They're good kids. Anyway, it's getting late; do you have the number of a motel nearby?"

"Motel? No way, you're staying here." Helen asserts, firmly and both Mirage and Bob stare at her rapid change of mind. "It's the perfect solution. How long can you stay for?"


	4. Keep Your Friends Close

**Thank for the reviews**

**And for support from Bomb Voyage and ****Sahara**** on the i-kronos (dot com) board**

**Thanks then to: Dash, goldfish078, soccergurl1990, Jack-Jack Incredible and Scary Vampiress**

**Much appreciated, as ever**

**But now I'll just carry on with this**

**It contains some mild drug references**

**But seriously – unbelievably mild, I just don't want to take any chances**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Four. Keep Your Friends Close**

- o -

It is strange how, when people get used to things and wonder how they lived without them. Helen Parr pops her head around the living room door, just before heading out the door with her husband, and smiles in on Mirage detailing one of Syndrome's more brilliant inventions to Dash.

"...but that was only temporary so he came up with one that worked through two small pin-type things inserted just behind your ears." Mirage explains.

"Cool!"

"Ew, that's gross, Dash." Violet wrinkles her nose and then disappeared, leaving a rattle shaking in midair in front of Jack-Jack's amused face.

"Hey, we're just about to head out," Helen tells them and Dash looks at her with hopeful eyes.

"Can I come this time, Mom?" he begs. "Please? I promise I won't get in your way..."

"Dash..."

"Please, Mom? This isn't fair; why do you get all the fun?" Violet reappears in the room, having been playing with Jack-Jack who promptly shrieked with laughter and pelted his big sister with stuffed animals.

"Please Mom?"

"Please Mom?"

"Please?"

Helen folds her arms and sighs; two against one, this was hardly fair.

"Okay, okay," she relents, but adds firmly," But _only _in an hour. We'll meet you outside the City Hall and you two better have finished your homework by then."

"Of course we will, Mom!"

"Who do you take us for!"

She smiles slightly and, smoothing her mask over her eyes, she heads out the door.

* * *

"Dash, slow down," Violet calls at the distant shape of her brother, his feet blurred across the tarmac; just a sweep of bright red heading towards Municiberg.

"Vi, hurry up!" Dash hollers back. "We're missing it!"

Violet rolls her eyes and, sweeping back her long dark hair, sprints to catch up but her brother is soon so far ahead she can barely see him. They are almost there anyway, so she holds back, choosing not to waste her energy before anything really happens.

Apparently, though, it is too late and there are blue flashing lights ahead of her in the street and she increases her speed only to see her mother swing by, springing to a gentle halt beside her.

"Attempted bank robbery," she explains briefly. "Try to stay out of trouble, honey. Don't go too far." And then she's gone again.

Violet approaches the scene, slowing up out of curiosity but suddenly Dash is coming back with an uneasy look on his face.

"Vi, Vi – maybe it's not a good idea if you see this..." Dash tries to usher her back again but Violet keeps advancing, her eyes narrowed and scrutinising her brother's expression.

"Why? What's going on? What did you do?"

"Nothing, but – uh – loads of – uh – violence and...shooting. Really not pretty. You don't want to see this," he nudges her softly backwards but she pushes past him and heads through the crowd.

"Trust me, Vi – you don't want to see this..." Dash runs after her but it's too late.

* * *

As the police cuff the attempted bank robber, they sigh and shake their heads at each other.

"Jesus, he's just a kid. Just a boy."

"What did you think you were playing at, young man?"

The boy's eyes are dazed and out of focus.

"Huh – wha? Where...where am I?" the boy turns to the officers but can make no sense of anything.

"Christ, drugged right out of his mind, too," one of the comments with a click on his tongue.

They bundled the boy into the back of the police van and he leans his confused head against the cool Perspex window and stares out of it, blinking.

"Shows over, people – go on back home now."

They wave their hands at the small crowds that have gathered and the onlookers start to wander off, leaving two kids in strange bright red clothes standing in the darkened street. The smaller kid has a shock of blonde hair and looks up at the taller kid, a skinny, dark-haired girl of about fourteen or fifteen.

Somewhere in the boy's mind, it jerks a faint and distant memory. As he stares blankly at the masked face of the strange figure in the street, he sees a tear, illuminated by the streetlights, slide down her cheek. She shakes her head slow and mouths something he can't make out because she brings a slender hand up and covers her lips with it. Her dark hair catches the light slightly, shimmering deep blue and black. It bothers him; he knows he's seen her before but where?

Then he closes his eyes and falls back into the van.

* * *

"Vi...?" Dash tugs on his big sister's sleeve but it's like she doesn't hear him. "Vi, maybe we should go home now."

"No..." she murmurs to herself, shaking her head slowly. "Tony..."

- o -


	5. It Just Is

**Thank very much Dash, goldfish078 and StreakedWithColor for the kind reviews**

**This is a far more melancholy chapter**

**I think it will pick up in a chapter or two but you'll have you put up with it for now**

**Sorry about that**

**But yes - Read and Review if you so like**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Five. It Just Is**

- o -

Frozone, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl arrive by the sides of the minors shortly after the police van has disappeared deeper into the city. Violet, however, is still staring at where it once was and, as Dash briefly and subtly tries to explain the situation to his parents, there is a distant rumble of thunder and the rain starts coming down, quicker and faster.

"I'll see you guys later," Lucius nods at the group and begins to head off, though not before allowing a handful of raindrops to become a flurry of snowfall onto the delighted Dash's springy blonde hair. "Goodnight."

"Come on, kids – let's go home," Bob interrupts Violet's gaze gently and turns her to face back in the direction of home. "It's late," he adds, though it isn't but for once, no-one complains.

* * *

Sitting outside in the garden, Violet Parr likes it when it rains; she enjoys watching with some amazement, everytime, the way the drops slide over the apparent nothing-ness of her invisible shoulders and arms. So absorbed in the way the rain hits her unseen feet, she doesn't hear the back door open and someone step out. Someone comes to sit beside her on the patio table; Violet can hear the drive of rain against their umbrella but she herself makes no sound in response.

"Vi?" her mother murmurs with little hesitation into the empty air beside her. Helen Parr turns to see one hand appear, suspended, on her left and she reaches out and takes it with her own.

"How do you always know where I am, even when you can't see me?" Violet asks, eventually. Helen smiles.

"I'm your mother," she answers, with a shrug. "Vi – Dash told us about Tony."

"He didn't do it." Vi replies shortly but feels her mother's hand tighten around hers; it was something they always did when she wanted to talk without being seen – just so Helen knew she was still there.

"Honey, sometimes when you really like someone and believe you know them, you don't want to see it any other way," Helen proceeds delicately.

"He didn't do it, Mom."

"You've got to admit that it doesn't look that way, honey. How do you know?"

"Because I do, Mom. I just do. He wouldn't do something like that. He's not like that." Violet appears fully next to her mother and turns to her with wide and imploring eyes. Helen only strokes back her daughter's soaking wet hair and moves the umbrella over to cover her instead.

"Come inside, honey. You need to dry off and get to bed before you get sick." Helen puts an arm around her obliging daughter and guides her back inside.

But before Violet goes to sleep, she sees her mother smile kindly at her. The kind of smile that warmed her on the surface but held back a sort of sadness at the idea that she, Helen, believed her unwavering faith in Tony was false and was just waiting for her to come around to the parentally-approved view. Perhaps, after all, they just could not understand.

* * *

"It's tricky," Mirage said finally breaking the silence in the living room. It is just she and Helen sitting there, coffee cups in hand; Helen is blank and has been staring at the same patch of carpet for ten minutes so Mirage felt the need to say something.

"Huh?"

"The situation," she explains. "With Violet. It's tricky."

"Tricky doesn't quite cut it – try impossible." Helen replies with a slight smile. "You should have come along; what are your powers anyway?"

"Like the name – mirages and hallucinations. They used to be quite good, but I'm out of practice," Mirage confesses. "And anyway, I've been banned from using them for another year. They've implanted something under my skin that will alert the authorities when I'm using my powers – in response, I would get an electric shock from it."

She says it all with a small laugh.

"Wow." Helen comments and pauses before asking, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you choose to work for him?"

"Syndrome? I don't know, it was all quite overwhelming; I don't think I ever stopped to think about what I was doing, sometimes things are easier that way," she answers. "Look at your daughter. You believe her boyfriend tried to steal from a bank but she still sees him as innocent, though everything points at guilty."

"And don't you think he meant to do it? It's impossible. We all saw it."

Mirage shrugs her shoulders again and wraps her fingers around the now-empty coffee mug.

"I don't know. Not all things are calculated. Not everything is based on rationality, on technicality, on reason. Some things you just know. Some things you can only feel. I would've thought that you, of all people would've known that." she tells her gently.

Helen looks at her as though she'd only just realised she was there. Then her eyes flicker to the closed bedroom door of her daughter and the ajar one of her eldest son from which she can hear Bob Parr trying as best as he can to answer the torrent of random questions that the hyperactive ten-year old is throwing at him.

"I'd better get back," Mirage murmurs, setting her coffee cup down and getting to her feet.

Helen doesn't really hear her, though, and Mirage quietly heads back to her new rented apartment only two blocks away.

Some things you can only feel...

She shakes herself, washes the mugs up in the kitchen and goes to bed.

- o -


	6. Breaking And Entering

**Thanks very much to Elastigirl (author of Do We Have To Move Again?) and Alias Morpheus for reviews**

**Also, Alias Morpheus – sorry for not continuing with explaining about Tony**

**It will come later, I didn't just leave it like that**

**It never actually struck me that you'd want to know right away**

**Which was stupid**

**But yes, it's coming, eventually, it all comes together in the end**

**Thanks anyway**

**And just read, review if you have time**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Six. Breaking And Entering**

- o -

Dash stumbles blearily through the house in the middle of the night, with a short attention span and irregular sleep pattern, Dashiel Robert Parr has never really had a full night's sleep – endlessly useful for him, hell for his parents. He stops in the middle of the hall, blinking and getting used to the darkness when he feels a cold draught, chilling his skin through his pyjamas. Awake now, he turns to see that, past the slightly open door of his sister's bedroom, the window is open and the bed, vacant.

"Violet? Vi?" he creeps into her room and walks around inside it, checking that she isn't hiding in any of the corners.

The room is empty. He stands in the middle of it and swears quietly to himself. His digital watch tells him it's 4 o'clock in the morning and within hours his parents will be waking up and promptly freaking out over their missing daughter. Thinking nothing else, he grabs his super suit and mask and slips quietly out of the same open window.

* * *

As her younger brother had stood, blinking, in the hallway of their house, Violet Parr had been by the steps of the City Jail. She was only going to see him, she told herself; she wouldn't do anything stupid, she wouldn't give herself away. Nodding to herself, she glanced down at herself to make sure she was invisible and then slipped inside the building.

The guard, playing around with a mini basketball, takes a half-assed aim at the tiny basketball net stuck to the window with suction caps and misses. He shrugs, puts his feet up on the desk and leans back in his chair, modelling something out of Blu-Tack: the ultimate signs of boredom.

Violet smiles to herself and, quietly slinking behind him, she nudges slightly the swivel chair of the now-sleeping man. With perfect precision, his feet slip off the desk, his chin off his hand and his elbow knocks the button which releases the gate into the corridor cells. He swears loudly, mumbles to himself and falls back asleep as the gate slides to a halt. By this time, though, Violet is already halfway down the corridor and glancing into each cell for that familiar face.

She sees him now, through the bars of the cell and curled up on the prison bed, huddling under his thin blanket.

"...Tony." she murmurs, without thinking.

"Who's there?" he sits up suddenly and Violet stops herself from yelling out with shock. She thought he was asleep but clearly not as she watches him stare at her, through her, with crazed and darting eyes.

"You've got to let me out. I didn't do anything, I swear. You've gotta believe me." His voice is hoarse and older than it was before. There's something desperate in his face and a hazy confusion clouds his eyes from time to time. Then he falls back onto the bed, worn out.

Violet edges closer to the cell, now that he is no longer watching; she reaches out and takes hold of one of the cold metal bars with an unseen hand. But as she leans closer to the bars, her breath shallow to keep as quiet as she can hear some sudden loud noises coming from the entrance hall; the guard shouts and something falls to the floor with a crash. The cell gate she just came through slides open again but she still holds onto the bars and cannot tear her eyes away from the boy lying, defeated, on the bed.

"I believe you," she whispers.

Dash sprints as fast as he can down the corridor and hits into his invisible sister who falls back with a yelp. For a brief second Tony, who looked up when he thought he heard his girlfriend, sees that small kid in red again, but he blinks and he is gone again.

"Ow!"

There's that familiar yelp. Tony leaps up and runs to the bars.

"Vi? Violet? Vi?" he yells down the corridor but Dash, who had quickly grabbed his sister's wrist and ran, has already dragged her back out of the building.

"Shut up, kid." Someone in another cell mumbles, irritably and Tony returns, dejected, to sit on the side of his bed.

* * *

"Dash? What are you doing here?" she mutters to her brother once they've left the entrance hall, in which Dash's more destructive method of throwing the guard's computer monitor onto the floor to get in, is still clearly visible.

"Getting you back – need I ask what _you_ are doing here?" Dash returns with a superior smirk. It's not everyday you can get one up over your big sister. "I think you should be in bed."

"Home is about the last place I'd like to be right now," Violet mutters darkly as they stroll back in that direction. "They just don't believe he didn't do it."

"So? What's the big deal? They don't _have_ to believe you – until you prove them wrong, of course."

"Prove them wrong?" she looks at her little brother with a smile creeping across her face. "Yeah, I guess I could do that."

"And if it helps at all, Vi," Dash looks up at her and smiles back. "I believe you."

"You do?"

"Yeah – I believe I can beat ya back to your room!" he grins and speeds off down the empty suburban streets.

"What? You little ! You're not allowed in my room! Come back! Dash!" Violet shouts after him and hears only his delighted laugh echoing back towards her. She rolls her eyes and, with an exasperated sigh of someone who is clearly too old for these childish games, gives chase.

- o -


	7. Denial

**Thank you very much, reviewers!**

**Ahh I love reviews**

**Yes**

**Okay yes right, thanks very much to: TheFLHurricane aka Dash, Scary Vampiress and Alias Morpheus**

**Hurrah!**

**Anyway yes on we go with Chapter Seven**

**With some more jack-jack action**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Seven. Denial**

- o -

Only a few hours after getting back, Violet and Dash are sitting around the table with plates of waffles in front of them. There are dark rings around Violet's eyes and even Dash is yawning as he gobbles down some waffles. With their father having already headed out half-heartedly for work, their tiredness goes unnoticed as Helen tries to feed Jack-Jack who's putting up quite a good fight against it.

"Mom, can we come out with you and Dad again tonight?" Dash speaks up finally, spraying waffle crumbs across the table.

"Ew – Dash, can you not be totally revolting for once in your life?" Violet complains, inspecting her clean hair for bits of waffle.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Dash," Helen tells him sternly. "And you can come only if you behave today at school. You know, for once, I'd like to _not_ have to come down and see the Principal one afternoon."

"I _always_ behave!" Dash protests. Helen raises her eyebrows.

"Really, Dash? The tacks, the pranks and I recall one regrettable time when you put the school hamster in Mr Kropp's coffee cup."

Dash giggles to himself, despite his mother's warning glare.

"That was a great day," he murmurs, looking wistful. Violet rolls her eyes.

"Grow up," she mutters.

"Hey! Just cos you were too chicken to do anything," Dash retorts, outraged.

"No, I was just not as stupid as you."

"Chicken!"

"Just shut up, Dash – god you're so immature!"

Helen rises to her feet as Jack-Jack pushes his bowl of food off his highchair. "That's enough from both of you!"

Dash and Violet fall silent but still exchange angry glares, forgetting completely about the previous night. Helen sighs and picks up the upturned bowl from the floor.

"I'm going to go clear this up; when I get back, you two better be ready for school," she says in her 'I Mean Business' voice. Jack-Jack laughs gleefully at the small mound of baby food soaking into the carpet while his older siblings glower at each other before looking down at their plates.

With Helen in the kitchen and Vi and Dash poking bitterly at the waffles on their plates, nobody notices when Jack-Jack spontaneously turns into a white-feathered hen. He pecks curiously at the plastic of his highchair and breaks the silence with one loud cluck before promptly turning back to normal.

"That's it! Mom!" Violet yells.

"What? What did I do?" Dash's eyes widen in innocence. Helen returns to the dining room, teeth clenched.

"Dashiel, don't pester your sister. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"He called me chicken again!"

"Well you are!"

To add to the chaos, Jack-Jack opens his mouth and begins to wail.

"Violet, clear the table please and just ignore your brother. Dash, stop harassing your sister and go brush your teeth." Helen shouts, above them all.

They mutter a couple of last resentments and leave the table in silence. Sighing, Helen picks up the screeching baby and attempts to soothe him, thinking nothing of the single white feather on Jack-Jack's highchair.

At lunch, Violet finds herself once again sitting amongst Tony' friends and being subjected to their conversations; she didn't really feel quite like sitting by herself again. Dylan is once again giving his own account of what happened that the Metroville bank; despite not even being there himself, it's an account that gets more elaborate every time.

"Now, that's messed up!" one of the kids of a crowd gathered stares in wonder at Dylan, Harvey and Francis. It appears they have become more popular overnight following the bank incident.

"He was like, threatening the guards and that – trying to steal some money. Totally mental, seriously," Dylan continues. The more Tony's so-called friends exaggerate the story, the angrier Violet feels herself getting.

"No way!"

"No, it's true," Francis makes a rare contribution to the conversation, unable to resist the surging crowds.

"Yeah he's always had a violent side," Harvey confides in the group of kids hanging on his every word. "I swear he once threatened me with some scissors."

It must have been feeling tired and emotionally drained as well as the betrayal from Tony's friends, because Violet gets to her feet now, eyes blazing.

"You call yourselves his friends? Look at you all, stabbing him in the back! For God's sake, he didn't do it!" she screamed at the astounded group. "And, Jesus Christ, Harvey – he was asking you for the glue – get a grip!"

She stands there, the crowd of other students just staring up at her in a silent shock; many of them barely knew Violet existed.

"You don't believe he did it?" Francis asks her finally.

"I _know_ he didn't," Violet asserts, calmer than before and stalks off, leaving the group to gawk after her.

"Some people have difficulty accepting things," Harvey tells them wisely, shaking his head as the blue-haired figure retreats into the school building again.

- o -


	8. A Helping Hand

**Thanks very much for the kind reviews**

**Sorry about the late update, I think the chapter following this might be a little slow too.**

**Loads of schoolwork – you know how it goes**

**Thanks anyway to**

**Dash/TheFLHurricane, soccergurl1990, Nn11 and Meatball-101**

**I'd actually forgotten about this fic until I got a random review from you, Meatball **

**Ha.**

**So yes, that's it**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Eight. A Helping Hand**

- o -

Mirage picks up the ringing phone as Helen comes through the door, having just been to the supermarket and picked Vi and Dash up from school.

"It's for you," she hands the receiver over to Helen, swapping it for the groceries in her hand. Dash makes a beeline for the couch and grabs the TV remote whilst Violet wanders wordlessly off to her room to shut herself in.

"A what? Hang on a second," Helen frowns and places her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone as she speaks to her son. "Dash, can you turn it down? Sorry, yes? Hostages...? I don't know..." She looks into the kitchen, phone cord trailing behind her, where Mirage is stacking the groceries in the fridge.

"Elizabeth, can you handle the kids for a while?"

"Sure, what is it?" Mirage replies, catching some toppling cereal boxes just in time.

"Hostage situation, thanks." Helen smiles gratefully before speaking into the receiver again, "I'll be there."

Mirage shrugs in the empty kitchen, "No problem." And she laughs slightly to herself at the bumper bag of candy at the bottom of the bag that Dash had managed to sneak into the groceries.

"Be back soon, kids – be good," Helen says hurriedly rushing out of the front door. Jack-Jack gives a loud shout from his playpen.

"I'm always good," Dash answers automatically, but his mother has already gone, so he turns up the volume on his cartoons now.

Dash is so lost in the Fairly Odd Parents playing on the TV that he doesn't notice when his baby brother turns himself into a big grey rabbit. Jack-Jack gnaws a while on the bars of his playpen and twitches his nose as the doorbell rings.

Mirage breezes through the living room, not seeing the rabbit replacement for the baby, and opens the door.

"Hi, I'm one of Violet's friends," Francis greets her shyly. Mirage nods.

"Come in, Violet's in her room," Mirage returns to the kitchen and Francis pauses in the living room, briefly watching the cartoons.

"Nice rabbit," he comments before heading down the hall to Violet's room.

"Thanks," Dash responds vaguely.

Jack-Jack strokes his long floppy ears with one grey paw and turns back to normal with an overjoyed chortle.

* * *

"Violet? It's Francis, can I come in?" Francis knocks softly on her bedroom door. In seconds, the door is flung open and Violet stands in the doorway with a hardened look of defiance on her face.

"What do you want?" she asks him, bluntly. The shy boy shifts awkwardly in the hall, searching for his words.

"I just wanted to say sorry, about what happened at lunch," Francis apologises. Violet softens slightly and stands aside to let him enter her bedroom.

"Yeah, well – maybe you should be apologising to Tony," she answers with her mother's sharpness. "He's in a pretty bad state."

"How do you know? Did you see him? How did you get in?" Francis rushes the questions and Violet silently curses herself for letting that slip.

"Uh – my Dad knows someone who works there," she gives the first answer that comes to her head and is relieved when Francis doesn't seem to question her any further. He sits on the edge of her bed and says nothing.

"You should've stood up for him," she berates him, but her voice has lost the sternness it had previously.

"I shouldn't have encouraged them, no. But, Violet – I do think he did it, or tried to," Francis replies, quietly. He looks at her through the haze of his dark hair, just as she once did.

"But...Tony, he's not like that," Violet searches for a rational reason but she doesn't have one and only stares at him with widened eyes, desperate for him to understand.

"I didn't think so, no. But there is no other reason. Believe me, I tried every other explanation – he's my friend too; I didn't want to believe it."

Violet has no reply and Francis looks at her crest-fallen expression for a while in the semi-dark of her bedroom before getting to his feet.

"I'm sorry, I should go. I only came to apologise for what I said today and I've done that, so I'm gonna go now," Francis murmurs. "Bye Violet."

And then he is gone, leaving Violet to sink down to the carpeted floor and sit, her knees pulled up to her chest, staring blankly ahead at the opposite wall.

* * *

"Goodbye, Francis," Mirage greets politely as she sees the quiet boy head for the door as she entertains baby Jack-Jack.

"Bye – what did you say your name was again?" Francis asks.

"Mirage," she answers, absent-mindedly.

"Huh?" Francis repeats.

"Uh – Elizabeth. Elizabeth Peña," Mirage covers up, hurriedly.

"What did you say before?"

Mirage winces, hoping he hadn't noticed.

"Mirage – it's just a, uh, stupid nickname I have," she laughs it off.

"Okay then," Francis answers, shortly. "Bye, Elizabeth."

As the boy leaves, Mirage shakes her said and sighs.

"I nearly gave myself away, Jack-Jack," she confides in the baby, who shrieks with laughter and throws his bouncy ball across the room.

While Mirage turns her back to retrieve it, Jack-Jack has a brief try at being a balloon but soon gives up and returns to his usual form.


	9. The Missing

**Thanks again, endlessly for support from Nny11, Xalias and princessmoi. **

**I'll not hold you up any longer**

**It gets pretty fraught**

**The plot thickens and so on and so forth**

**Read – review if you so wish, I know I would greatly appreciate some feedback though**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Nine. The Missing**

- o -

Helen, Bob and Lucius stand on the rooftops of one of the high-rising apartment blocks in Metroville City. They are gathered around the clamshell-style gadget Lucius holds in one gloved hand. Without warning, a small light at the top of it begins to flash and the device begins to beep.

"Hang on, there's another one coming in," Frozone squints closer at the bleeping object, an ice blue like his whole suit. "A fire, back in Municiberg. 47 South Street." He glances at his two masked friends who shrug their shoulders.

"We can handle the hostage thing, 'Zone," Bob offers. "No problem. You head back and take the fire."

"You are the one of us most suited for it, after all," Helen adds. Frozone nods and sends up small cloud of frost with a smile as he snaps the gadget shut and puts it away.

"Okay I'll see ya around later, then – have fun!" He grins, rolls his shoulders slightly – limbering up for the long night ahead. Then he shoots a long, fast-melting snake of snow ahead of him, snow-boarding off across the city.

They watch their friend disappear for only a moment before switching back to the task at hand and head off in the direction of the reported hostage situation, each using their own talents to skip over the rooftops and above the static cars jammed in the roads below.

* * *

The pair arrive together and stand a while outside the office block building at which the events have unfolded. The building is evacuated all but one twenty-ninth floor room in which the police estimated twelve people were randomly picked out and forced into the room to act as hostages. The demands made by the team of five or six were trivial, as always, but hard to meet. 

"Just keep them busy," Mr Incredible mutters to the police chief in charge on the scene as Bob and Helen fall into their own roles in the situation as though it were an everyday occurrence; it once was.

As quietly as he can, he pulls the grate off the air vent at the side of the building.

"Air vent? The oldest trick in the book – how cliché," Elastigirl chides him playfully before hopping lightly inside. He only grins after her and begins to scale the towering wall.

* * *

The apartment block is ablaze when Frozone arrives on the scene, strategically placing blankets of ice and snow as soon as he gets there. 

"How did the fire start, ma'am?" He calls out to a distressed resident standing on the pavement.

"I don't know, I don't know – it just did; you have to help them, there are still people inside," she begs him, wringing her hands unconsciously.

"Don't worry, ma'am, just get to a safe distance," Frozone responds in his favourite epic superhero voice before disappearing into the flame-engulfed building.

* * *

Helen Parr slinks with ease through the intestinal air ducts snaking through the building, keeping her mind firmly stuck on maintaining a sense of direction. She stops briefly and crouches in the tiny tube trying to work out in her mind whereabouts she is in the building. Further down the tunnel, gears clank and thick metal wires churn around each other; an elevator rises past one end of the air duct and Elastigirl slopes off over towards it. 

She finds herself leaning over the edge of a dark, deep drop but calmly steps out from the duct, reaching her long arms up to hang onto the bottom of the elevator.

"Twenty-seven...eight...nine," she mutters to herself before hurling herself at the air duct entrance just above the closed door to the twenty-ninth floor. With effortless grace and ease, she slips inside the narrow piping and weaves through it, stopping at every grate to check to the rooms for hostages.

And then she sees them: twelve – just as the cops had said – people slumped in submission with two armed and masked men standing guard in a room on her left. She crouches by the air duct grate and begins to quietly turn the screws that hold it in place. They probably haven't been turned since the building was built, twenty-two years ago and one of them screeches loudly as it turns, the sound echoing down the metal duct.

"What was that?" One of the guards turns sharply, cocks his gun. Helen freezes and holds her breath out of instinct and professionalism rather than fear.

"The air conditioning in this place is old. It creaks," one of the hostages speaks up from the floor.

The guards look at each other and seem to accept this explanation as they say nothing further than: "No talking."

Obediently, a silence fills the room once more before being spectacularly broken once more by Elastigirl bursts out from the duct like a coiled spring – in more ways than one. With coolly calculated precision she takes out both guards with one swift and powerful right hook.

She says nothing as the twelve hostages scramble to their feet and gaze at her in astounded admiration. Helen Parr only wriggles her gloved right hand and fingers before running it automatically through her red hair.

"Stay quiet; I'm going to get you out of here but you have to be quick," she orders them in hushed tones.

They nod eagerly and watch as she runs to one of the huge windows at the side of the building. On the outside ledge, she sees her husband clamber up and grins as he prises the floor-to-ceiling window from its frame and scrambles into the room.

"You got this? Get them out of here – I can take it from here," Mr Incredible says to Elastigirl.

"Of course you can – the hard part's already over," She replies coolly, bantering again for old times' sake. "It's so nice of you to make an appearance."

She approaches the empty window pane and, peering down, she beckons to the nearest person. The middle-aged man in his business suit leans over the window ledge and turns to the masked woman, uncertainly.

"But – it's twenty nine floors down – " he stammers. Elastigirl smiles kindly at him and grabs his hand in her gloved one.

"Just trust me, okay?" she tells him and, gripping the ledge tightly with one hand, vaults over the edge bringing the man down with her. The stretch is long but she's an expert by now and the businessman comes to a gentle halt, twenty-nine floors down. Letting go of his hand, Helen springs back up to the twenty-ninth floor, leaving him stare after her in amazement.

Eleven leaps later, the room is clear except for the two superheroes and the two knocked-out guards.

"Wow," Mr Incredible remarks, peering over the unconscious armed men. "Fifteen years of marriage and you still surprise me."

"I know," Elastigirl keeps up the act with a slight smirk as she heads towards the door. But as she does, he grabs her wrist and turns her around.

"Oh come on, do you want to do this the easy way or the stylish way?" he asks her, grinning. Helen only raises her eyebrows.

* * *

Midway through debating their demands with the police over loudspeakers, an almighty crash comes from the hostage room and the four of them race up to the twenty-ninth floor. As the lift doors ping open at level twenty-nine, the step into the room that should've been full of hostages. Now their two associates lie on the floor and, in the centre of the room, poised and ready to fight, stand Mr Incredible and Elastigirl. 

Emerging less than ten minutes later, the two supers strut calmly out of the building, six bound and unconscious men piled on top of Mr Incredible's shoulder.

"Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl – the city owes you. Thanks again," the police chief nods at the pair as the other cops rush to arrest the unconscious felons.

"All part of the job," Bob quips. Helen notices his voice deeper than usual and glances at him with a slight knowing grin at the act they both put on.

"Shall we get back soon? It's kinda late," she reflexively slips her arm around his when they are far enough from the crime scene.

Bob runs his eye along the city skyline, from which the sun sank hours ago, scanning for any signs of trouble that might erupt. The city is calm and running smoothly so he turns to his wife with a smile.

"Sure – catch up with the kids, have dinner, be normal – why not?"

* * *

"So what did you do at school today, Vi?" Helen prompts, trying to break the silence in the dining room. Violet looks up at her with pained eyes.

"Nothing," she murmurs.

"She went mental at lunch!" Dash supplies the information gleefully. Violet turns to him in open-mouthed outrage. "Yes, Vi – even the elementary school kids know all about it."

"What?" Violet shrieks.

"What?" Helen asks, narrowing her eyes.

"Dash?" Bob scrutinises his son.

"What!" Dash protests, widening his own eyes in innocence – it was his most reliable look that got him out of most sticky situations with strangers and drew old ladies to him like moths to flames.

Helen sighs finally, seeing how distressed this topic has made her daughter and decides it may be better to look into it sometime later.

"Leave your sister alone, Dash." She scolds in exasperated tones. And then again, the doorbell rings. Bob glances across the table at Helen.

"Elizabeth has her own key," he murmurs at her.

"And you don't go bowling anymore..." she adds to which Bob looks slightly shifty.

The bell rings more urgently and, on opening the door, the Parrs see a distraught Honey Best standing on the doorstep. She rushes into their house, a look of franticness on her face.

"Helen – Bob – Helen," she turns to both of them, confused in her panic. "Is Lucius here?"

"...No." Bob answers slowly, suspicion creeping into his voice.

"Oh God – oh God," Honey whispers, her eyes darting between the concerned Helen and Bob. Violet and Dash watch with baited breath from the dining table until finally Honey's eyes fix their nervous gaze at the blank wall ahead of her.

"He didn't come home," she tells them, drawing in a deep breath. "Do you know how scared I've been of this happening for so long? He didn't come home."

- o -


	10. Make A Scene

**Thanks very much reviewers, especially the new ones.**

**And especially the regulars.**

**Especially everyone.**

**Yes.**

**Thanks anyway to Nny11, princessmoi, TheFLHurricane aka Dash from i-kronos, CF12, manicalpha and lilaeth.**

**It's always nice to get reviews and yours were very nice.**

**Anyway, onwards, onwards.**

**And things get serious.**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Ten. Make A Scene**

- o -

"He didn't?" Bob allows for a short time of shock before turning to his wife and taking control of the situation. "Where was he last?"

Helen is staring blankly at her distraught friend and takes a while to respond.

"Uh – he went to take the fire...Municiberg – South Street. Number forty...forty – " Helen trails off. Looking at Honey, she realises with some horror how that could be her standing, despairing, with no way of knowing when she'd see Bob again. Or even Vi, Dash or Jack-Jack.

"Seven. Forty-seven, I remember now. Okay, let's get down there and start looking," Bob asserts firmly. Honey looks at him and nods slightly, wiping her eyes.

"Bob – he could have finished it in five minutes and moved on to another situation," Helen murmurs uncertainly.

"Well it's the best place to start – we have to do something," Bob whispers back, emphasising 'something' with a glance at the frantic Honey.

"Yes – yes of course," Helen shakes herself and takes a breath. "Honey, we're going to go find Lucius – do you think you can keep an eye on the kids? They're really not much trouble."

"That's fine, I'm fine – you're going to find him?" Honey looks to both Helen and Bob who nod together. They quickly grab their suits and are at the door when Violet and Dash catch up to them.

"Mom, Dad – can't we come? We could help look," Dash asks but Helen, still holding in her mind the realisation of how easily all this could slip away, replies shortly.

"No. It's not safe."

"Your mother's right, kids," Bob cuts in as Violet and Dash begin to protest. "It's too dangerous and, until we know exactly what's going on, we want you to stay right here."

Violet and Dash shrink back from the door, grumbling and flashing dark looks.

"Promise me you'll stay here, promise me." Helen looks from Dash to Vi.

"We promise." They mumble in reluctant unison as their parents, satisfied with their oath, disappear out the front door.

* * *

Bob and Helen arrive at the crime scene and stand, open-mouthed at the smouldering wreckage – a few floors stay standing, but only just.

"He just didn't come back out." An officer appears next to them.

"Why did he go back in?" Helen finds her voice.

"Heard someone else – someone was calling."

"And what about them?" Bob presses further. "Did they survive?"

The officer shrugs. "No bodies were recovered. Neighbours say everyone is accounted for – there was no-one else."

"Can we - ?" Helen asks, finally, approaching the charred rubble. The officer obligingly lifts the tape and allows them in.

"Watch it; it's shaky." he calls after them.

* * *

Violet didn't know what to say. Dash was fine with most situations; he could talk about literally anything for hours and once did – two hours on the subject of toothpicks until Vi gagged him. What was she doing now? She sat tensely in the living room and all she could think about is that they might be waiting to find out whether or not an old family friend is dead or not.

The phone rang. Thank God. She leapt to her feet to gratefully answer it.

"Hello?" she greets, breathlessly.

"Hello – Vi? It's Francis."

"Oh, hey Francis. What's up?"

"I, uh, thought you might like to know that, uh, Tony's out today," Francis told her distractedly.

"Okay." Violet answered shortly. "That's it?"

"Yes. That's it. See you in school," he spoke quietly, shyly, as ever before putting the phone down. Violet stared at the receiver for a while before replacing it. What a weird guy.

* * *

"Bob – have you got a torch?" Helen whispers in the creaking building. In response, he kicks aside some of the debris on the floor and finds a small torch buried underneath. Flicking it on, they gaze around at the groaning skeletal structure of the building. It is barely standing.

"I don't like it," he comments, waving the beam of torchlight around. "It's suspicious."

"Well that's why we're here," she replies, hopping lightly over the wreckage. They creep softly over the blackened floors, saying nothing further, until:

"Helen – over here." Bob hisses through the empty building.

"Oh my god," she murmurs as she arrives by his side.

Illuminated in the narrow torchlight, pair of slightly scorched gloves lie on the ash covered floor.

"Lucius' gloves..."

"He couldn't have burnt to death, he couldn't have," Bob insists as Helen looks at him. "He wouldn't. He's too good for that."

"So where is he?" she asks. He shrugs.

"He can't be far – just keep looking," he replies, optimistically.

The pair of them begin to wander off in opposite directions, scanning the floor for anything else.

"Ouch." Bob trips suddenly on a scorched chair leg. The suddenly movement makes the wall next to him crumble slightly and, above their heads, the beams tremble.

"Helen..."

Helen looks up and then looks back to her husband with fear in her eyes.

"Bob – get out of here. Get out." she calls urgently.

"No, I can hold it up for a while, you get out."

"Don't be stupid, you know I can slip out at any time – get out of here _now_," she orders him.

But he doesn't move. And she doesn't move. With her final plea for him to leave, the ceiling begins to collapse...

* * *

"What's that noise?" Dash sits up suddenly and Violet turns to him, cocking her head. Honey is now asleep on the couch and Jack-Jack is busy making pyramids of bricks to knock down.

There's a beeping noise somewhere in the house. Violet and Dash follow the electronic beeping to their parent's bedroom where, in a drawer, an outdated clamshell device lies amongst t-shirts and vests. Imprinted on it is the old Elastigirl logo.

"Lucius had one of these in his place," Violet remembers. "It's so the police can contact the supers about stuff that happens."

Dash tentatively presses the catch release button and the contraption springs open to show a screen and some buttons.

"Hello Elastigirl," an electronic voice greets the two children. "Robbery – at Western View Junior High. Coordinates 18H."

Dash glances at his big sister. "That's your school," he reminds her.

"Yeah, so what?" Violet snaps, defensively.

"But your jailbird boyfriend is locked up," he says without thinking and then shuts his mouth quickly, waiting for his sister to attack him after that comment.

"No. He's out today." she replies softly.

* * *

"Bob – get OUT!" Helen yells desperately, but her words are lost in the torrent of plaster, brick and wood that comes crashing down on top of her.

The flood of rubble seems to go on for ages and as the dust settles, someone coughs. Helen looks up from where she is crouched in a tiny ball on the floor to see Bob standing above her, shielding her from the falling debris.

"Why didn't you go?" they ask each other, simultaneously. Bob grins.

"Are you crazy? Just because you're small doesn't mean you can escape getting crushed with this –" he bends down and lets a huge slab of concrete slide off his back.

"I – I just..." Helen stammers, wordlessly. He smiles at her.

"Are you alright? Is something up – you haven't been your usual rational self lately?"

Helen sighs. "Doesn't it scare you? It scares me – thinking that this could easily be me looking for any trace of you in piles of wreckage, late at night."

"Yes. It does," he answers and dusts the ash and gravel off his shoulders. "Even more so when you decide you'd like to stay in a collapsing building. Honey, it'll be alright."

He picks her up as she nods and smiles at him, shaking the dust from her hair.

"We should get back – tell them what we found," she says eventually. Bob sighs.

"Yeah. They'll be wondering."

- o -


	11. Unconditional

**Wow!**

**It was like a shed load of reviews!**

**Well actually 8 but that's a lot for me**

**Thanks lilaeth, Nny11, soccergurl1990, princessmoi, HORSELUVER101, TheFLHurricane, BeastBoyBlitz and a particularly epic one from manicalpha**

**Sorry about the torch/flashlight thing**

**I try to make things as American as possible when I write them cos that's the original language**

**Flashlight just didn't occur to me**

**Anyway yes, thanks very much; it was great**

**And now some more**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Eleven. Unconditional**

- o -

"Where is he? Where is he? Did you find him?" Honey rushes to the front door and flings it open before Bob even has his key in the lock. She has a wild and frantic look in her eyes and yet she still believes that maybe, maybe they found him.

"Honey – Honey, listen," Helen starts up, trying to calm her down. Honey doesn't even listen to the rest; she knows the tone of her friend's voice and sinks to the floor in the hallway.

"Can I stay here tonight? I don't want to go home by myself," she asks in a small voice.

"Of course you can," Helen tells her softly and leads her to the fold-out bed in the living room.

"Come on kids," Bob ushers Violet and Dash from the room. "You two should get to bed."

"Did you find him, Dad?" Dash pipes up as Bob picks him up and carries him to bed. Bob sighs.

"We will, Dash, we will."

* * *

Everyone at Western View Junior High is on their best behaviour, worried that they'll be caught messing around while there's a cop nearby. There are plenty around, roaming the corridors, though they're not there to keep the kids in order. After a recent major charity fundraising event at the High School, there had been over a thousand dollars stored in the principal's office overnight before they took it down to the bank. It was a good effort – the most they'd ever raised. Now it's gone.

"Vi!"

Violet turns around hearing her voice and sees Tony ducked behind some lockers. She looks around her, self-consciously before approaching.

"What are you doing down here?" she hisses at him.

"I'm so happy to see you again, I really missed you." he smiles at her. She looks at him incredulously.

"You were in prison."

Tony looks crestfallen. "And you think I did it, right?"

"There was a robbery here last night, the night they let you out, in your own school. And now you're hiding in the hall because the cops are everywhere."

"Jesus Christ, Vi – it's not the cops, it's everyone else. All the kids who stare at me like I'm gonna knife them and mutter stuff about me when I head to class. Can you imagine how it feels?" He looks at her desperately.

"Yeah, I know, I got it all the time while you were locked up." she snaps bitterly.

"Vi, I didn't mean..."

"Tony, I tried to believe you. I tried to believe you didn't do it –"

"No, don't Vi – I'm not kidding, I wouldn't lie about something like this. Not to you." His voice shakes, his pale hands tremble and he stares imploringly. She looks away.

"I'm sorry, Tony. It doesn't add up." she sighs and walks away.

* * *

Violet tries to keep her mind of the TV that she's half-heartedly watching whilst her Dad reads the paper in the corner of the room. Dash is finding diversions in his room, pretending to do his History assignment and Jack-Jack is napping. Every now and then, in between the show, Violet is distracted by her cell phone buzzing and ringing, crying out for attention. She ignores it every time as she chooses 'silence' from the menu on the cell phone screen, the words just below 'Tony calling...'

Just as her cell stops flashing and buzzing, the house phone begins to ring. Vi sinks further into the couch, cringing to herself and pretending to be deeply absorbed in the TV show as Bob looks across at her. With a sigh, he gets up, puts his paper down and heads off down the hall.

"Hello," Bob speaks lazily down the receiver.

Violet peers down the hall to look at the big shape of her father standing in the darkened hall; prepares to flinch back and try and pretend she's not in. But as she hears the hum of the other voice coming down the phone line, Bob's face visibly changes. His eyes widen.

"'Zone?" he asks, hesitantly. Dash appears in the hall, Vi is on her feet and Helen cranes her stretched neck around the kitchen door in shock. "Wait, wait, you gotta speak slower – where are you?"

"I'm...I'm in danger, Mr. Incredible," Lucius' voice rumbles. "I need you to help me out, you know I would never ask if I didn't mean it, man. Can you please come down to where the fire was? South Street, Number Forty-Seven. Tonight – at 1am."

"'Zone – are you sure you're alright? What's going on?" Bob presses.

"I can't tell you now; you must trust me, if you can't trust your friends, who have you got left? I need your help," he spoke with last words with deliberate firmness.

"Sure – sure thing," Bob nods, knowing his friend's insistent tone.

"I gotta go now. 1am – number forty seven, South Street."

- o -

And the line goes dead.


	12. Mala Fide

**It's a bit dark**

**But thanks for the reviews**

**Thanks soccergurl1990, FutureFanatic, Maggie, Nny11 and Angie King**

**I'm really sorry about dropping Frozone in peril**

**But I think you should know**

**I just don't do sad endings.**

**I'm a happy ending person, all the way.**

**Please bear that in mind while you read the rest of the fic**

**And thanks again, I really appreciate those reviews**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Twelve. Mala Fide**

- o -

Helen steps out from the kitchen, Violet ventures down the hall, forgetting all her worries about Tony.

"He's alive," Bob says with a smile and a shrug. Helen breathes a relieved laugh as her body catches up to her head.

"He's alive," she grins back.

"What time is it? I'm heading down to the burnt-down place we were at yesterday morning. 1 am. We're gonna get him back." Bob beams.

"1 am? Are you serious?" Violet pipes up, incredulously.

"Vi – darkness is the best cover anyone could ask for," Helen speaks calmly. "If you're going to bust a super, or anyone, out of anywhere, night would be best."

"This isn't just a bit suspicious, though?" Violet persists. "I don't know if I..."

"You're not going." Helen cuts her off sharply, shocked at the idea that she even considered it.

"Honey, you know, it'd be better if you didn't, either." Bob adds. Helen turns on him with her eyes blazing.

"What?"

"It's just that, Vi's right. If this is at all not what it seems, we can't leave the kids at home."

"Right, so I'm staying at home and watching the kids, is that it?" Helen snaps. Bob shrinks slightly, but stands his ground.

"Please, honey, you gotta think about this. And what happened yesterday."

"That was yesterday. And why should it be you? Why should I be the one to stay at home and look after the kids?"

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Dash mumbles grumpily and Bob and Helen stop in their argument, realising Vi and Dash are still there.

Bob sighs. "Listen everybody, I'm going tonight, alone." He says it so pointedly and so firmly that it ends the conversation.

* * *

It's an even greater task than usual trying to usher the two eldest Parr children into bed that night, especially since Helen is slightly more uncooperative tonight. Even when they manage to send them to bed and stay there, at half past midnight, both doors creak open and Violet and Dash creep out into the silent house.

The source of the silence and tension appears to be in the living room where Bob sits on the sofa, geared up and ready to go. Helen sits opposite him, in her dressing gown and she stares at the clock above his head, saying nothing. He looks at her often but she pretends not to notice and coldly does not return the look.

"Helen – " he breaks the silence awkwardly. "What is this about? It's not about gender stereotypes or anything like that anymore, is it? Is it because of what happened yesterday? Is that it?"

"Wait." she says suddenly and then raises her voice. "Vi, Dash, you're supposed to be in bed."

Violet and Dash reluctantly show themselves.

"We just wanted to see you, Dad, before you went to get Lucius," Dash explains with his innocent expression.

"Well, okay. But I'm going now, so go to bed, kids. I'll see you in the morning." He smiles at them before heading for the door.

"Good luck, Dad," Violet adds.

"Bye everyone," he calls quietly before closing the door gently behind him.

Helen says nothing but, after a pause, rises to her feet with a: "Time for bed, kids." and shuts off the light.

* * *

It's dark and it's cold and he's trying to be as quiet as he can. Old rushes of adrenaline pulse through his veins as Bob slips through the city while it sleeps. He arrives shortly at the smouldering scene and glances at his watch: right on time.

"'Zone?" he whispers into the dark, trying to be quiet.

He sticks to the sides of the walls and edges around the scene, professionally and carefully. He still hears his daughter's incredulous 'Are you serious?' echoing in his head. He always knew she was the more sensible one, the one to think out a situation like her mother rather than dive straight into it and hope for the best like he did. He suspects Dash might turn out like him as well: jump right into a mess and try to come out with style.

"Mr. Incredible?" Frozone's voice comes in the darkness. He sounds calm – that's a good sign.

Bob heads towards it and sees Frozone standing just behind to the burnt-up wreck.

He remembers the way Lucius' eyes were blank and empty and he realised then just how emotionless and dead his voice was. This was just before he felt a stinging pain at the back of his neck and he fell, face-first, into the ash covered floor. And passed out.

* * *

The next thing he knows, Bob wakens, tightly bound with some form of rope that just won't give when he tries to burst free. He struggles for a while and gives in to the horror that this material is like nothing he's ever known before; something made just with him in mind.

The room around him is dark. The floor is cold. Wires trail on the floor and various machines and equipment are scattered on the floor in disarray. Then he sees his friend slumped on the wall opposite.

"Lucius?" Bob croaks. Frozone looks up. His head is without the helmet and he looks tired and strained.

"Oh god, Bob – they got you too?" he sounds as he looks.

"Who is this? Who did this?" Bob hisses but, as if as an answer, someone steps from the shadows.

"No talking," orders the person. "No – talking." There is a metallic clang as the person leaves the room and then Frozone shakes his head.

"I'm so sorry, Bob. I'm so sorry," he says in a voice that cracks. He hangs his head and his shoulders begin to shake.

- o -


	13. Follow

**You'll probably wonder why it took me so long to write this**

**Especially since it's only a short chapter**

**But hey, I'm sorry, I was real busy**

**And will continue to be busy for a while**

**Exams and all**

**I was also kind of waiting on more reviews but OH WELL!**

**But I WILL get this done soon**

**Thanks for the support anyway, soccergurl1990!**

**Yes, it was you and only you**

**YOU WIN!**

**Heh heh, thanks very much for that.**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -**  
**

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Thirteen. Follow**

- o -**  
**

"So, Mom – where's Dad?" Violet asks as soon as she arrives at the table in the morning for breakfast. Dash quickly grabs the seat beside her and fixes his mother with an eager look.

"Yeah Mom – is Lucius okay? Did they get him back? Did they have a big fight? Did we win?" Dash demands, getting more and more excited with each question.

Helen rises to her feet, dazedly and begins takes Jack-Jack's empty breakfast bowl back to the kitchen.

"You know what, kids? I reckon you should stop asking so many questions or you'll miss the bus," she returns with a faint smile as she wanders towards the kitchen.

"Mom?" Dash pipes up and Helen stops in the doorway.

"Yes?"

"Mom, it's Saturday."

Violet glances at her, suspiciously.

"Yeah, Mom. What's going on?"

Helen sighs and sinks down into the chair across the table from her two eldest children.

"Your father didn't come home last night, kids." she tells them gently and sees their faces contract in horror. "But before you go jumping to conclusions, don't believe the worst, okay? There could be millions of explanations for this and, before we know the truth, I don't want you getting worked up over this – you got that? I'm going to call Elizabeth to keep an eye on you, and then I'm going to go out and look for your father. You must promise me to stay here and keep safe."

"What? Mom, come on, this is just stupid. Lucius is lost; Dad goes out to find him. Dad gets lost; you go out to find him. Don't you think there may be a _pattern_ here or something?" Violet shrieks.

"I told you, don't get worked up. Violet – what else is there to do? What else can we do? I have to find him." Helen answers firmly, getting to her feet and heads to the kitchen. Leaving Dash speechless at the table, Violet follows her in.

"Mom, please, come on – you gotta think about this one. If you get lost, who'll look for you? It'll be down to us and I don't know if I can..."

"Violet, Vi, listen to me. Listen to me," Helen takes her daughter by the shoulders and looks straight in her distressed eyes. "You're the oldest here and I'm counting on you to be strong for your brother. You can't talk like this. You can only hope for the best and stay alert. Everything will be alright. I'll be home by dinner."

"But Mom..." Violet protests weakly.

"I'll be home by dinner." she cuts her off, resolutely.

* * *

Vi?" Dash creeps into her room after breakfast.

"What?"

"Vi, what's gonna happen?" Dash asks, uncertainly. Violet turns around.

"I don't know, Dash. Think of it this way: Mom and Dad are both good at what they do, right?" Violet prompts and Dash nods. "Probably the best; there probably isn't a super out there better than both of them together. And Lucius. And then there's the government, they'd help out. And all those times before when we've been kinda stuck, we've always come out okay."

"Ok," Dash smiles slightly. "Okay."

* * *

Violet slips quietly down the hall as her mother prepares to leave. Mirage is standing by the doorway and they're talking quietly. 

"Where are you going to start?" Mirage asks.

"I don't know," Helen shrugs, pulling on her gloves. She looks at Elizabeth with wide eyes. "I honestly don't know."

"If anything happens..."

"If anything happens, you'll look after the kids, won't you?"

"Of course," Elizabeth nods. "Of course I will. But that's not going to happen, Helen. You'll find him."

Helen sighs as she places her mask over her eyes and turns to the door. Then she turns back at looks at Mirage.

"I can't help thinking that I didn't even say goodbye to him when he left. I was mad at him over something stupid, I don't even remember what now, "she sighs again. "I didn't even say goodbye."

And then she's gone.

- o -


	14. A Team Player

**Hey, thanks for the reviews**

**It was a dig at you guys or anything, I just found it funny that only soccergurl1990 reviewed**

**It can't have done my ego any harm**

**Ha!**

**Well anyway, it was more than made up for by Nny11, soccergurl1990, Etienne and DElf4242 and PlaidButterfly who left two really great reviews**

**But then I've already thanked you for those**

**They were the best reviews I think I've got, so thanks again**

**But I'll stop now**

**Honest**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Fourteen. A Team Player**

- o -**  
**

She skips lightly over the rooftops, straining her eyes and combing the streets for any sign of her husband. She feels she's looked everywhere but this is barely beginning; she began tired, it's only getting worse. The tracking device built into the super suits was not working, she's scoured the city, contacted all of her old friends in the business and still nothing.

A faint beeping draws her attention and she flips open the latest device she's been supplied with by the government so they can alert her and the other supers of the latest occurrences. Helen scrutinises this latest one. It's in the form of a compact wristwatch; they get smaller all the time, and more complicated and it only makes her feel old. She preferred the handheld ones, she thinks, at least she could work those ones.

Helen sighs, exasperated. Just a few blocks away there are flashing lights and sirens – they needn't have bothered beeping her. Silencing the watch, she heads over, across the tops of the houses and shops, leaping over wide, busy streets.

* * *

"They'll find your father," Mirage breaks the silence. It's not normally so quiet when she's round, she, Dash and Violet normally get on well and chat for hours. 

Dash looks up at her with blank eyes but no-one says anything.

"What do you kids want for lunch then?" she tries again. Violet shrugs. Mirage sighs and gets to her feet. "I'll just find something then, shall I?" She doesn't expect a reply and heads into the kitchen.

Eventually, Dash grabs the TV remote and flicks through channels mindlessly.

"Stop!" Violet yells and is suddenly knelt right up by the screen. She turns to her confused brother. "Go back! Go back!"

"Huh? What's going on Vi?" He turns slowly back through the channels until Violet points triumphantly at the screen.

"There!"

On the screen, seemingly on the News Channel, is their own father.

"He's there, he's okay! He's on TV!" Dash whoops loudly and Mirage comes running in. Mirage stands for a while.

"I don't like this," she says slowly and then is proved right when they watch Bob fling one of his powerful fists into the side of shop, smashing the windows and leaving customers to flee the shop in chaos.

"Oh my god."

* * *

"The cynics among us always knew this would happen but the government had always put its trust in them," the reporter stands on the street corner, speaking with sickeningly false sincerity. "Today, that trust has been betrayed; the supers are taking over." 

"What?" Helen leaps down from her vantage point on a high-rise building and lands lightly beside the reporter. The reporter jumps back with melodramatic horror stretched onto his face.

"Don't hurt me!" he gasps.

"What is going on?" Helen demands, looking between him and the camera in confusion. And then she turns and sees her husband tearing his way through the streets.

"Oh my god..." Helen murmurs to herself.

* * *

Now it is Mirage kneeling in front of the TV.

"This can't be right. This isn't right." she mutters to herself. "Vi, Dash, this can't be what it looks like – I know it looks pretty bad but..." she turns to find Vi and Dash standing in their super suits and masks, ready to go; they've even dressed and masked their baby brother.

"Oh no..." she shakes her head. "No, I promised your parents I'd take care of you and that means not letting you out. Not like this, at any rate, it's far too dangerous."

"I highly doubt you discussed what you'd do in _this _situation," Violet raises an eyebrow at Mirage who weakens.

"I really don't think this is a good idea..."

"Elizabeth, this is what we were _born _to do. We really could help out there." Violet reasons.

"Well – "

"Thanks, bye!"

She doesn't even get to finish before Violet and Dash disappear from view, the front door left hanging open.

"Come back here! I didn't say you could even – " she sighs and follows. After all, what chance has she got against an invisible girl and a speeding boy? Making a mental note never to agree to babysitting supers again, she picks up the suited Jack-Jack, locks up and heads towards the city.

- o -


	15. It's All Relative: Part One

**Sorry about the delay**

**But thanks so much for the reviews**

**I'll try my best to get the next instalment done quickly, but you know how it goes**

**Thanks anyway, to: soccergurl1990, megarabelle, Edani, Megan, Della, Syndrome'sGirlXOXO and most of all to DElf4242 who not only gives the most amazing reviews but also added this fic on his C2 community**

**Thanks very much, guys**

**It is all extremely appreciated**

**I'm going to shut up now**

**Because this part is where all the fights start breaking out**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Fifteen. It's All Relative – Part One**

- o -**  
**

It takes a while for Helen to slip into super mode. She's been faced with villains of all sorts, thinking it was them or her and it was always them. Now she's not so sure.

"Bob...honey?" she calls to him hesitantly as he makes his way down the street to her. It's chaos around her but she tries to stay calm. "Bob, it's me."

He stops in front of her. She sees almost a faint glimmer of recognition in his eyes but then he swipes one of his huge fists at her.

Helen ducks it, just in time, flattening herself against the tarmac road. It was him, she recognised the tiny scar by his eyebrow. But something was up...someone else was inside.

"Helen!"

"Mom...Mom!"

She turns to see Mirage standing there with a masked Jack-Jack and her two older children, ready to go.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop them coming." Mirage calls apologetically.

"Hey Mom, what's going on?" Dash yells.

"Please get out of here, kids. Please get somewhere safe." Helen shouts back at them.

But her back is to her husband and she doesn't see him pull a mailbox from the paving slabs and lift it over his head. He brings it down, fast, aiming for his wife.

"Mom!" Dash screams.

Helen turns in horror to see the blue mail box come crashing down above her. It clangs loudly as it hits the purple force field around her.

"Hey, Dad!" Dash speeds off down the street behind his father. "Hey, Mr Incredible!"

Bob turns in confusion, leaving his wife alone.

"Vi..." Helen begins, stunned as she faces her daughter who removes the force field with a slight smile.

"Hi Mom." Violet grins.

"We could do this, if we work together." Helen says, looking fondly at her oldest daughter. "We always knew we couldn't keep you from doing what you were born to do. Be careful. Please be careful; we don't know exactly what's going on. Just be careful."

"Of course I will. I'm an Incredible, isn't this what we do?" Violet beams before chasing after her brother who is racing through backstreets and between parked cars to avoid his father. Bob Parr simply smashes through the cars, leaving flattened messes of metal and glass behind.

"Bob!" Helen calls, finding a new energy. Her husband doesn't respond.

"Mr Incredible!" She tries again, and he turns, begins to come after her. Knowing her husband probably better than the person somehow controlling him did, she knows she can outrun him, being more nimble, more flexible.

As she springs between streetlights and shop-fronts she thinks to herself. What has she got so far? It isn't him in there, she knows it, it's not the man she married. That part is easy enough to see. So who was it? There hadn't been any major jailbreaks, any news of supers slipping from their side.

It didn't take long for Mr Incredible to tire of chasing after Elastigirl, who eluded him everytime and skipped far ahead. Turning away from the super, he looks to start simple, one of the smaller ones perhaps, they look an uncomplicated enough target.

"Vi – quick he's coming our way." Dash grabs his sister's elbow and Violet turns to see her father charging down the street. "Run!"

It was a rookie mistake. In any other situation they may have been forgiven for it. They kept their eye on the enemy as they ran, rather than where they were going.

"Dash..." Violet finds herself faced with a wire fence. "Dash, it's a dead end." She swallows, feeling a mix of fear and anger at their own stupidity sink in her. The only way out of the alley, the way they came in, is now cast into shadow as the overpowering figure of their father stands in the way.

"There's no way out, there's no way out..." Dash murmurs nervously to himself.

"Dad...Dad don't..." Violet begins to plead.

Helen, now out of Mr Incredible's reach quickly turns back to check up on what's going on. She had been lost in her own thoughts and shouldn't have left Vi and Dash alone. It is a passing thought but it blows up in her mind when she returns to the scene.

"Dad!" Dash yells. Mr Incredible reaches for one of the parked cars. Violet begins to scream as he lifts it over his head. Frozen in shock, the pair of them just stand there. And he brings it down on top of them.

"Vi! Vi, your force field!" Helen screams at her, leaping across to the alley where her children are. But when she arrives she sees.

Perhaps it was just that her oldest daughter was too scared. And that faced with her father brandishing a Tahoe, looking into a face she'd looked into as a baby and had only ever seen safety, maybe she just couldn't do anything. The scream rings in Helen's ears and her legs buckle and shake.

This was never meant to happen. Not to them, not to her children. She shouldn't have had to watch them die.

With rasping breaths Helen finds the numbness fades slowly from her body and she realises: she can still hear the screaming. Around the corner of the alley, Mirage finally stops, falling to the ground. With all her energy concentrated on keeping the shimmering image in front of their eyes to act as a diversion for the children, she had had to stand against the electrical shock being passed through her from the chip whilst she used her powers.

"Run! Now! Go!" Mirage gasps to Vi, now holding Jack-Jack, Dash and Helen. Pulling herself together, Helen runs to her friend, helping her to her feet and follows her children away.

"Thank you," is all Helen can repeat, dumfounded when they duck behind a hot dog stand. Mirage smiles at her, shrugs her shoulders and passes out on the concrete.

- o -


	16. It's All Relative: Part Two

**I'm sorry about the delay.**

**I let this one slip a bit, didn't I?**

**Ah well, I'll try not to let it happen again.**

**And if you enjoyed this, all thanks must go to Tonyloaf from I-Kronos dot com**

**If you hated this chapter, blame her too**

**Heh heh, just kidding.**

**Well thanks so much to all the reviewers who reviewed the previous chapter all those days ago:**

**Emutet****, Megan. Syndrome'sGirlXOXO, Etienne d'Lune and the real Violet Parr.**

**And on we go**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -

**Throw ****Me.**** Chapter Sixteen. It's All Relative – Part Two**

- o -**  
**

Dragging Mirage to a safer hiding place, Helen catches sight of Bob powering down the street towards her and her children.

"Run, kids." she tells them, calmly and, though shaken by what's just happened, they still know exactly what to do. As Helen leaps effortlessly onto a ten-storey building and Dash nips quickly past his father and off down in the other direction, Violet turns herself invisible.

Mr Incredible still keeps moving towards her though and it's only until Violet looks down that she realises.

"Jack-Jack, now would be a great time to have powers," she mutters to her baby brother who appears to be floating in mid-air. Jack-Jack only laughs, delightedly and swipes the air where he thinks his sister is.

"Jack-Jack, please..." she hisses, more urgently, preparing to put a force field around them both. It'd have to be strong, she knows how powerful her dad is, and she isn't sure she has the energy anymore.

"Come on, Jack-Jack. Quit messing around." she murmurs. "Do SOMETHING." Mr Incredible looms above them. It's a strange thought, knowing he could kill her and wouldn't hesitate, having actually seen it herself.

"Jack-Jack..."

There's a pause from Mr Incredible, as though considering the floating baby. But then he raises a big fist in the air and starts to bring it down.

It stops just inches from Violet's invisible face; she can count the lines and fine details on his hand. Looking up, hardly daring to believe she's alive, her father looks confusedly around. Just by Violet's feet, she sees a yapping Yorkshire terrier run and hide under a parked car.

Apparently, to Mr Incredible, there's no-one there and Helen, who watches from the top of the building, effortlessly ducks her husband's right hook as she rushes down to ground level.

"Vi? Vi – did Jack-Jack do that? Is that him?" she scoops up the terrier enthusiastically and it spontaneously transforms back into her baby son with a laugh. "He's a shape-shifter! You had powers all along, didn't you?" she tickles Jack-Jack with a broad smile on her face. "Bob, look at this!" Forgetting, she turns to her husband and then, at the hostile look she receives from him, remembers and makes her escape over the tops of the city, the grin never really leaving her face.

* * *

-------------------------------------- 

"Lucius..."

Frozone jerks his tired head up in shock. His kidnapper had never used his real name before – he just assumed he didn't know it. But there is something about the voice, that voice...

"Lucius? How you holding up?"

That voice. He suddenly realises and squints at the back of his kidnapper who turns around.

"Bob?" he asks uncertainly. It was Bob's voice, that was certain, but it wasn't his face or body.

"Hey 'Zone – this is pretty messed up, isn't it?" he jokes. Lucius shakes off his shock at hearing his friend's deep voice emitting from the pint-sized kidnapper's mouth.

"It sure is. What's going on here, Bob?" he presses.

"Some kind of mind control thing, I think – I think he's using my body to take over the city. I saw Helen...I remember that...and then I can't think..." the face creases in confusion.

Meanwhile, out on the streets, the body of Mr Incredible stops on the sidewalk. He looks around him in horror and pauses.

"What's going on?" a voice shrieks, but it doesn't fit the muscular body. "Stop that!" Curious, Helen, Vi and Dash creep out from their hiding places. That voice; it makes Violet freeze.

* * *

------------------------------- 

"Lucius, I don't know what's gonna happen here, but it's not going to be good," Bob continues. "You have to get out of here; you have to beat this."

"I tried, man, but this guy's got some specialized tools here." Lucius holds up his hands that had been wrapped in some form of tape. "I can't do anything with this."

"You're gonna have to try, 'Zone." Bob tells him firmly. "Because I don't know if I'll..." He trails off and there is an awkward silence for a moment before he continues: "Lucius, you'll look after Helen and the kids if anything happened, won't you? I mean – I know she'll pretend it's all okay and that she can do it by herself, and she can – but I don't want her to have to. You got that?"

"Bob, this is stupid – come on, you'll be fine," Lucius asserts nervously.

"I really don't know, 'Zone," comes the reply in a heavy voice.

* * *

------------------------------- 

"Mom – Mom, I know that voice!" Violet yells, running towards her mother.

"Stop it! What are you doing! Stop that! Stop talking!" the voice coming from her father's body screams confusedly. Then his head drops and leaves a ringing silence.

"Mom! I know that voice!" Violet tells her, excitedly. "I have to go, I have to go now!"

"Vi, Vi calm down!" Helen frowns in bewilderment.

"It's a mind control thing," Mirage adds in, reappearing at her side. "I think Syndrome had one of these in development. You'll have to try and talk to him, talk to Bob, and get him to come to the surface. I think it works by transmitters, inserted – "

"As small pins, behind the ears!" Dash finishes her sentence eagerly. "You told me about this!"

"Okay – okay," Helen's face is still creased in a frown.

"Mom! Mom! I have to go, I need to find someone," Violet repeats urgently.

"Fine, fine – take your brothers with you, go somewhere safe." Helen nods, handing Jack-Jack over to Violet. "Elizabeth, stay with me."

"Right." Mirage rolls up her sleeves meaningfully as the children run off in the opposite direction. "Talk to him."

* * *

----------------------------- 

"Bob? Bob? Are you still there?" Lucius demands. The kidnapper raises his head.

"No talking," he snaps in his same old voice, shaken.

Lucius hangs his own head but, filled with a new sense of determination, focuses all of his energy on the palms of his hands. Gradually, so slowly it's almost unnoticeable, the room begins to get colder.

- o -


	17. It's All Relative: Part Three

**Yes, I know – I suck.**

**And I'm very, very sorry about that.**

**I don't know why I keep forgetting about this fic.**

**You reviewers have always been so souper**

**Thank you, Nny11, the real Violet Parr, soccergurl1990, Edani, DElf4242, dyu123 and TonyLoaf from i-kronos for REMINDING ME**

**I really do need it.**

**So sorry about the ridiculously huge delay**

**I hope this chapter keeps you going for a while. I'll try and be faster next time.**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -**  
**

**Throw Me. Chapter Seventeen. It's All Relative: Part Three**

- o -**  
**

"Bob..." Helen begins uncertainly, dodging another punch and ducking a thrown car tyre. She tries again, more forcefully now: "Bob – listen to me, I know you're there." She tucks a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear decisively and springs across to the opposite rooftop.

"Bob – where are you? You need to get past this, honey," she says, striking inspiration. "You just missed Jack-Jack's first powers. He isn't powerless after all. And it got me thinking, you know, Bob. It got me thinking about how we found out about Vi and Dash's powers. Remember that?"

Her husband starts to rip down the tower block on which she's standing but Helen Parr is, as ever, unperturbed and continues. "Remember when Vi was just learning to crawl and I was out at the store? It was before we knew she had any sort of powers and I left you with her. I remember coming back to find you lifting up all the couches and furniture; you had the guilt written all over your face. You thought you'd lost her, remember? You'd been playing hide and seek and she'd just disappeared..."

Helen jumps the building just before Bob knocks down foundations completely. He apparently does not remember.

"I know you're in there, Bob," Helen yells, making a quick escape across the tops of buildings and houses. "You gotta get past this."

-

Dash follows his sister as she jogs down the street. It's an infuriatingly slow pace for him but then he doesn't know where she's aiming for so he can't exactly go on ahead.

"What's going on, Vi?" he asks as he runs.

"The voice," she says between breaths. "I recognise it. I need to check something out." And she stops outside a house Dash doesn't recognise. Vi is already halfway up the path and Dash, pausing, turns his head to the mail box and reads off it one word: _Rydinger._

He looks up in surprise and speeds down in his sister's footsteps towards the front door. It opens when he gets there. Tony stands in the doorway. He blinks. He rubs his eyes.

"Uhh..." he looks at the two small supers dazedly. "Can I help you?"

"Tony," Violet begins. "Tony – I need your help with something."

"How do you know who I am?" he asks uncertainly and Violet remembers her mask and costume.

"I just do," she says.

Tony hesitates for a moment and then lets them both in. His mother, father and younger sister crowd around the television set. Like every family in the state right now, they are transfixed by the news bulletin which dominates most channels, showing terrifying footage of The Super Who's Betrayed The City and the latest announcement: that police security systems have been alerted of convicted super, Mirage's illegal use of her powers.

Tony's family don't even notice the supers trooping into their home and to their middle son's bedroom. If they did see them, in their matching suits, they would have certainly chucked them out or called the cops. Violet is grateful then that Tony is Super-Obsessed enough to think optimistically and not only hope but to _know,_ that right now he can't trust the media's insinuations.

"What do you need me for?" he asks, shutting the door. Violet peers around his room.

She looks at him directly – she'd missed that and makes a mental note to tell him he was right. To tell him she forgives him – and trusts him. Because she understands now, it all makes so much sense.

"I need to borrow your address book," she tells him.

With a shrug of his shoulders, he opens a drawer and hands it to her. As her gloved hand brushes his, he narrows his eyes and looks closer into the black-masked face.

"...Violet?" he murmurs apprehensively. Her eyes widen beneath the mask. And then, tucking the small book into her pocket, suddenly she isn't there anymore.

Tony Rydinger hears a swoosh of air where the small blonde boy once stood. His bedroom door opens and shuts within the second. He knows his room is empty and he sits with a sigh back onto the edge of his bed. Maybe, he thinks, maybe someone will find the truth.

-

"How about Dash, Bob?" Helen tries again, urgently. "Remember when he first got his powers?"

Bob throws another punch at her and Helen evades it again – just. She's tiring now and knows his stamina tops hers. She knows that, despite her far superior agility, he can keep fighting for longer than she can. She knows that. She knows him.

"Come on, Bob – please," she calls, leaping behind him. He turns slowly and throws a taxi-cab at her which she manages to avoid. "Please, Bob. You have to fight this."

-

The room is freezing cold and Lucius continues concentrating all of his efforts on keeping the temperature in decline. A smile crosses his face when the outline of his kidnapper shivers suddenly.

"What's going on?" he turns to Lucius. "Stop that!"

Distracted for a moment, he loses his grip on the task at hand.

"Stop it!" the high-pitched scream splits from the lips of Mr. Incredible standing out in the city streets. "What are you doing? Stop that!"

"Who are you?" Helen demands of the foreign voice emitting from her husbands mouth, trying to piece together what's going on.

But as soon as she yells the words, the attacker is aware of his slip-up and grits his teeth, ignoring the sub-zero temperatures. He doesn't have much time, he realises, and swings another punch at Elastigirl, who'd inched closer.

-

Helen springs behind him again and latches onto his muscular back.

"Bob – don't let this beat you." she whispers in his ear desperately. "You can't leave me now, Bob. I'm not..." she pauses. Bob notices her on his shoulder and reaches back for her. "I'm not strong enough."

Her whispered words travel down his ear and send a shiver down his spine. Something in him stirs and sharpens. The hazy world become clear – like a free-diver surfacing at the last moment; another second under and he would've been lost forever.

But as he breaks the surface of his trapped world, the attacker took one last shot. While Bob had still been struggling to get back control over his own body, his hands had reached over his back. They had grabbed hold of his wife and hauled her, with effortless strength, off from where she clung onto him. She'd been too intent on the words that whispered from her lips to react fast enough.

His arms pulled her over his head. The held her in the air for a split-second and, with Bob's own eyes regaining consciousness of what he was seeing, flung her with all the strength in his biceps against the wall of the crumbling building.

"No!" he yells, seeing what he couldn't prevent his body from doing. "No – no, Helen!"

The building showers her in plaster and stone from the impact of her body hitting the side. He yells. He runs to her. He brushes her auburn hair and the gritty dust from her face.

"Helen...Oh God...what have I...?"

Her eyes are closed.

"...What have I done?"

- o -


	18. Beat This

**I'm gonna stop promising to update faster and actually DO it next time**

**Well, we'll see how it goes.**

**Epic thanks again to TonyLoaf for reminding me of this..**

**(This is also for you, TL, by the way, in the hope that you'll feel a whole lot better very soon)**

**Thanks also to the reviewers, the real Violet Parr, DElf4242, dyu123, megarabelle, charmed4eva1990, Nny11, percyismine, Arthur Hansen and Review1234**

**It's nearing the end now and, in this chapter, you'll finally find out who's behind all this**

**Although, I'm sure many of you already have guessed correctly/ lost interest**

**Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

* * *

**Throw Me. Chapter Eighteen. Beat This**

- o -

Bob kneels on the sidewalk where she lies and scoops her gently up into his arms.

"Helen? Helen – please say something..." he begs frantically, his words tightening and choking in desperation. Helen is unresponsive and Mr. Incredible – a far cry from the muscle man throwing street furniture about him just minutes earlier – swallows down a lump forming in his throat.

"...anything?" And his voice cracks and trembles.

He fears the worst. If today has been anything to go by, the worst is all he can expect. He lowers his head, shoulders hunched, and clings onto her tightly. The city may lie in ruins around him and there may be a swarm of paparazzi inching around the far corners of the block, hoping to capture some of this drama, but he doesn't realise it. There might as well be nothing else as he visibly crumples. And he furiously blinks back tears, thinking if he'd only been stronger, faster, better – if only, if only.

"I knew you could beat it."

Bob looks up, hardly daring to believe. Helen smiles faintly at him, despite everything, and rubs the back of her head with a wince.

"That was some throw there, Bob; talk about not knowing your own strength," she mutters.

"It wasn't me," he tries to explain, getting flustered all of a sudden.

"It's okay, Bob – I know." she assures him.

"Because I would never do that to you, you know that, right?" he babbles on. "I don't who it was but it wasn't –"

Helen, still knowing no better way of shutting up her husband after so many years, leans her bruised and dazed head up, pressing a kiss to his lips. As she does so, she reaches around behind her ear where she remembers seeing something that she didn't get the chance to remove, and pulls out the long pin-like object.

"I know." she repeats, pulling back and holding the pin out for him to see.

He stares, confused for a moment at the instrument in her fingertips and then raises a hand to lightly touch where it had once been.

"Mirage can explain," Helen says. "Or Dash, for that matter."

And then Bob sits up suddenly. "Mirage – the kids, where are they?" he demands, dread sinking into his stomach at what he may have done. But Helen smiles and squeezes his arm reassuringly.

"Relax – you didn't touch them," she tells him before adding with a grin, "You wouldn't be alive now if you had."

Bob chances a smile and looks about him. "Where are they?"

Just then, two familiar silhouettes appear at the end of the street. They walk up together, backlit by the late afternoon sun which only serves to remind them just how long this day has been. Both stop suddenly in the middle of the street.

"Dad!" a familiar voice squeaks out excitedly and, moments later, Dashiel Parr has thrown himself against his father, hugging Bob's arm with his own comparably shorter ones and not letting go. "You're okay!"

Bob grins broadly as, first his young son and then his daughter, fling themselves into his arms.

"That is an identical replica of the prototype Syndrome made," Mirage cuts in, handing Jack-Jack back to Helen and taking the pin-like device from her. Bob looks at her cluelessly but Dash nods vigorously with a smile.

"The mind-control device!" he jumps in eagerly. "I remember! What did it feel like, Dad? Who was doing it?"

With a frown, Bob attempts to recall the brief snaps of memory that had managed to sneak their way through his consciousness like flashes of lightening, illuminating the skies for the smallest fraction of a second. Then he suddenly remembers something that makes him leap to his feet, eyes wide.

"Lucius." he says. "They've still got Lucius."

-

The abductor pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

"No, no, no." he mutters frustratedly to himself. "That's not how it was meant to happen. This is not right at all..."

Frozone leans his head tiredly back against the wall and stares up at the white ceiling. A voice at the back of his head is trying to convince him that there must be something he can do but he's shutting it out for the moment. He's just far too tired...

"Right." the kidnapper says, decidedly. "Right – okay. Never mind."

And then he turns around to face Frozone with a smile on his face.

"Take two," he grins, moving towards Frozone. Lucius Best remembers those words, remembers the grin, but after that everything blurs, swirls and darkens.

-

Helen, Bob and Mirage instantly spring into action and all talk at once, hitting ideas and plans from back to front with urgency and importance.

"Bob – where did they take you?"

"I don't...I don't remember."

"Who's behind this?"

"I don't know."

"I know!" yells Violet as loudly as she can but nobody hears her and she rolls her eyes exasperatedly. That was the problem with being so forever-quiet; when she wanted to be loud, she couldn't do.

"Try to remember – try. They've still got Lucius."

"I _am _trying!"

"Mom! I know who it is!" she tries again and, this time, the only person who hears her is Dash.

"Well, try to narrow it down – east or west side of town?"

"I really don't know. I think they drugged me, or something. I can't remember anything..."

"Nothing at all?"

A piercing whistle cuts through their talking. "Hey!" Dash shouts above them all and their heads turn. He smirks at them and then points at his sister. "Vi knows."

"I know where he is," she informs them eagerly, with a hint of pride. "And I know who's behind it."

-

In an evacuated downtown apartment block in the residential area of Metroville city, someone sits down in a chair facing the corner of the room and shuts his eyes in concentration. This was taking much more effort than he had anticipated. The room is dim and most of the furniture upturned following struggle. One picture still dangles precariously in its cheap frame from the wall it hangs on – a photograph of a man and his young son, both of whom were smiling and both of whom were happy.

A dark-haired young girl he'd once liked, loved, from a distance stops outside his door.

"I recognised his voice," she says simply with a shrug to the man she's with. Bob looks at her and at Mirage for a moment, thinking first of all of his wife who he'd left back in the street outside with Jack-Jack and Dash before wiping his mind of that and thinking only of his friend and the situation at hand.

He gives a brief nod to Mirage and his daughter before easily shouldering the door open. Dust settles in a darkened room. There is a pause – just one breath – as their eyes widen to the gloom. When they can look around them clearly, Mr. Incredible blinks, stunned.

"You're just a kid," he observes, not hiding his surprise.

Francis opens his eyes and he leaps up from the chair as the string snaps on the framed photograph from the impact of the door bursting open and it smashes against the floor.

* * *

**Okay – the secret's out! Who else knew!**

- o -**  
**


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